About this weblog

Here we'll explore the nexus of legal rulings, Capitol Hill
policy-making, technical standards development, and technological
innovation that creates -- and will recreate -- the networked world as we
know it. Among the topics we'll touch on: intellectual property
conflicts, technical architecture and innovation, the evolution of
copyright, private vs. public interests in Net policy-making, lobbying
and the law, and more.

Disclaimer: the opinions expressed in this weblog are those of the authors and not of their respective institutions.

June 17, 2005

Axiomatizing Software Patent/Copyright Terms and Statutes

PATNEWS firebrand Greg Aharonian has offered up for comments his first attempt to connect the myriad of terms and standards used in patent and copyright laws and cases, as they apply to software. The diagram is a mess, which is not surprising considering the forest of conflict it's intended to summarize and formalize. Whether you agree with Aharonian's specific formulation or not, it's interesting to consider an axiomatic (and therefore more formalizable) approach to relating these terms and concepts. An agreed-upon formalization could make for much less confusion in practicing the art and (one hopes) make for more reasonable evolution of intellectual property law into new technologies.